KC: Ah the morning, so tranquil, and peaceful. No one even awake yet...anytime now. Anytime. Yup...anytime now...
Bucky: one minute. - Bucky goes and gets a roster- there we go. Roster. Do your job.
The Zombies lurched forward.
"Morning everyone! Isn't it a bright and beautiful day!" Colette cheered from the bottom of the stairs, knocking on the door to her comrades room. As she pounded on the door, it was opened from the inside and Lloyd duck as the fist came at him.
"Woah!"
"Oh I'm sorry Lloyd!" a save, and then a hit.
"Move out of the way Lloyd." Genis grumbled as he smacked into Lloyd, "I need to make food for everyone. Six extra probably." Genis yawned covering it quickly with his hand. Lloyd rolled his eyes but moved out of the room, giving the small boy room to move. At the top of the stairs, Guy had opened their door, and was about to go down the stairs when Anise come stumbling out of the room, rubbing the sleepers out of her eyes. Luke followed her at a faster pace, wondering where there was food. Anise bashed into Guy's back, pushing him down, and Guy turned around and grabbed Luke.
"WAH!" the three of them cried. Lloyd pushed Genis out of the way and towards the Inn Keepers desk. Colette ducked inside the room again, and watched in fear as Anise, Guy and Luke landed on Lloyd, Anise somehow coming out on the top of the pile.
"I knew I shouldn't have gotten up this morning." Luke moaned trying to get out from under Guy and Anise, both of which who were lying on their stomachs atop of Luke's own. (A/N kind of like a crisscross thing)
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Lloyd mumbled from under Luke's back, "You landed hard on my stomach."
"Sorry." Lloyd tried to shrug, but it didn't work.
"I've had worse..."
"Get off me Anise!" Guy cried as Anise jumped off and he bolted, once he was standing of course, back up the stairs, and unfortunately Tear was walking out, bag in hand, and Guy ran into her. Both Luke and Lloyd moved before Guy came crashing down again, Tear stumbling at the top, Jade having came from behind to steady her.
"My, my, I do love these morning disasters. Guy, thank you for lending a hand. Luke could never make things this interesting by himself." Raine stared up at him as she walked out. Kratos and Sheena had already left and were waiting outside.
"Could you people hurry up already. We didn't get the chance to release the seal yesterday." Raine never was a morning person. She grabbed Genis by the ear and led him outside, waiting for Colette and Lloyd to come on their own. Luke walked out before either did, Anise mumbling something along the lines of "what about breakfast?" as she walked out as well.
Natalia came up from behind Jade and twitched. She grabbed Tear from him and kicked him down. The Colonel went flying down the stairs and somehow managed to land on his feet by flipping in the air...somehow. Natalia wasn't much of a morning person either. She walked down the stairs while Tear dashed inside the room to see if they had forgotten anything. Lloyd, Guy, Jade, Natalia, and Colette walked outside. Colette walked up to Raine. She told Raine about Luke's hand, Raine's eyebrows furrowed.
"Luke, let me see your hand." she held her own out, waiting. Luke gulped and gave her his right hand. She removed the handkerchief and began to press down on some spots, hitting the same place as Tear had the night before. Luke gasped and jerk back. Raine raised an eyebrow, but for the most part ignored the teen and began to chant. Tear had just came out of the Inn, and saw Raine. The Auldrant group watched as mana, or fonons as they thought, gathered around Raine as she cried out the spell's name.
"First Aid!" Luke flinched as he felt the soothing healing magic enter his hand. In a span of only a few seconds, 30 at most, his hand no longer hurt. Raine dropped his hand, and smiled.
"That should do it. It was only a minor fracture. Though I am surprised that you didn't mention it earlier, but the fall this morning must have agitated it, making it worse then it had been." Luke nodded and rubbed his hand.
"Oh, you might want this back." Raine handed the handkerchief that Tear had put on his hand. He nodded and took it, storing it in a pocket.
"Now, if we're all set." Raine asked everyone eyeing them sternly.
"Yes, lets get going. We don't have all the time in the world." Kratos turned around as he spoke.
"If you don't mind, we'd like to accompany you." Raine looked at Jade, and his smiling face, "We don't know our way around, but you six seem to. And besides we'd like to repay you for your help." the others, expect Luke, nodded. He looked at his friends, wondering when they had decided this. Probably the night before.
"Yeah." Luke nodded his head, and smiled, "And thank you for healing my hand." Raine smiled. Kratos frowned, though no one saw it.
"In what do you specialize?" Kratos asked spinning back around and fixing a glare on Jade's grinning face.
"I'm a fonist, and spear user, Anise is a mage, Tear is a seventh fonist and also knows some healing arts, Natalia our archer and healer, and Luke and Guy are our swordsman, though Luke is a seventh fonist as well." a cold wind blew with sand in it, and the bird cawed again.
"I think that bird likes me." Jade grinned as the Chosen's group looked at each other.
"...Fonist?" Jade nodded his head.
"A sorcerer of sorts. I guess you could say.." A collective 'oh' from the other group was heard.
"What about a seventh fonist?" Lloyd cocked his head.
"A sorcerer who can use sound." another 'oh' came from the group. Luke tilted his head for a moment.
"I don't sing though." Tear covered a laugh with a cough.
"And I was wondering...you guys mentioned something about 'either World' when we were in the...Tower of Mana right?" Luke told them as most of the Chosen's group looked towards Sheena.
"Wah? I have to explain it again?!" she was stared at blankly. Sheena sighed and fiddled with the hem of her shirt.
"Um, you see, there are two worlds that we know of. Sylvarant, this world, and Tethe'alla, my world. They are parallel to each other, and they steal mana from each other in a sense. When one world is flourishing, the other is dying, so I came here..."
"Sheena, we just wanted you to tell them about the two worlds." Sheena blushed a bit.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Genis shook his head.
"Now she's sounding like Colette." Whack. Sadly, it wasn't Raine who got to Genis first.
"Uh...how do they steal 'mana' from each other?" Luke looked just as confused as the others, though Jade hid his. Colette grinned.
"Thats the Chosen's job. The Chosen is suppose to go around all of Sylvarant, or Tethe'alla, and release the four seals, and offering their prays. After each seal is released, and they have prayed, they gain an ability of the Angels. Once all of the seals are released, the Chosen is suppose to go to the Tower of Salvation, that huge one you can see from here, "Colette pointed to The Tower out for the sake of the Auldrant group, "And then the Chosen offers their prays once again, and they are reborn as an Angel, and the flow of mana is switched."
"So the basis of your two worlds thrive off of the thievery of the other? My, my don't you know stealing is wrong?" the bird flew by as both groups twitched. Kratos sighed and began to walk off.
"We didn't even know Tethe'alla existed until right now!" Lloyd exploded at the Colonel, who only pushed his glasses on his nose.
"So, there are three worlds?" Tear whispered. Colette and Kratos, who had stopped, heard and looked at her.
"Three Worlds?" Colette asked the question, for both her and Kratos, sounding excited and upset, "But what about that world?! How do you get your mana?!" the groups stared at Colette, her outburst shocking most of them, especially Tear. Colette took a breath and smiled at everyone.
"I guess that just means I'll have to work even harder to save them all!" Colette nodded her head, as if not only reassuring the groups but herself as well. The Auldrant group recovered from Colette's outbursts before the Chosen's groups, due to the fact that they didn't know as much about Colette as they did.
"To be honest we don't exactly understand what this mana stuff is. Just it sounds a lot like fonons...but different." Raine looked at Guy and the group inquisitively, Kratos storing this small amount of information in his mind for later uses.
"How would you go about using these 'fonons'?" Raine asked, resting her fingers against her chin.
"I propose we have an exchange of information." Jade stuffed his hands further in his pockets, "We tell you about fonons, if you tell us about mana."
"Sounds fair enough," Kratos said gruffly, crossing his arms, "but after we have released the seal. Releasing the seal is important for this world's safety that the Chosen switches the flow of Mana." Lloyd looked at the mercenary, his eyes confused.
"But whats wrong with telling them now?" Kratos turned his gaze towards Lloyd, his eyes turning hard.
"Do you want this world to die from the lack of mana?" Lloyd took a step back.
"N-no."
"Then we must hurry." Lloyd looked down at the ground, chewing his lip.
"But we also have to go back to the Human Ranch." a chill wind blew over the group, the Auldrant group not liking the sound of 'Human' anything. The Chosen's group looked upset. Colette looked up at Kratos, clasping her hands in front of her.
"We have to go save the people at the Ranch! Even if we were to release the seal right now, those people would still be killed, and then the Desian's would still be around just to collect more humans! We have to go there! We have to!" Kratos sighed and rubbed his forehead, 'This is probably a bad idea. I should just take her to the seal now, but Lloyd...'
"Alright." Colette's grin could only be outmatched by Lloyd's.
"Human...Ranch." Genis looked at the Auldrant group.
"Thats right. You don't know about them." he waved his hand around, trying to get his point across, "The Human Ranches hold many humans there to be turned into exspheres, like this one,"Genis showed the group his exsphere, " they're worked like slaves, until the expshere matures on them. They're basically just waiting to die." a shiver crawled up the spines of the Auldrant group, all of them looking horrified.
"How...how can...anyone..." Natalia began, but the words choked her. Guy looked over, his eyes sympathetic. Luke looked at the ground, clenching his fists, shaking with the effort not to punch the closet thing to him, which just happened to be Jade...and a boulder. Anise, Tear, and Jade just looked at the group, they're eyes the only thing showing any emotion at all.
"Thats...horrible." Anise whispered, her eyes wide.
Luke gulped, and looked at Lloyd, "We're coming too." Lloyd nodded his head, a grin plastered on his face.
"Are you sure you can handle it?" Luke turned his gaze to Tear and nodded. His eyes may have been shaking but there was determination in them.
"I can't just sit by and watch humans throw away others lives just for the sake of an experiment." he spat out, his fist shaking. Tear took a step forwards, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down first. And don't say you can't." Luke nodded his head, taking deep breaths to calm down his heart rate. Genis looked at Luke, wondering why he was so touchy over this, but...Lloyd and himself were like that too. He looked up into Luke's eyes from where he stood, and saw the raw hidden pain and sorrow carved into them.
"To use someone, but to only throw them away later." Genis heard as Luke clenched his hands again. He nodded.
"Yeah, its just sick and wrong!" Lloyd nodded with his best friends statement.
"And we'll get them back for what they did to Marble and Chocolat." Genis grinned at Lloyd.
"Yeah!" Luke looked at the two, before grinning himself.
"Yeah! Lets go help them!" Luke started walking, Tear's hand dropping to her side.
"Yea Master! Lets help them! Just like the replicas!" Luke nodded and walked off.
"You two are going the wrong way." Sheena said dryly from behind the two. Luke span around and pointed at Sheena, his face blank.
"Alright, then you lead the way!" Natalia shook her head and sighed, while Anise jumped into the air.
"Yeah!" Guy shook his head while Anise jumped around.
"You really have to stop running ahead. Remember when you were attacked from behind?" Luke glared at Guy, while Kratos rubbed his forehead. 'More loud people. Oh joy. My headaches will thank you all.'
"Yeah Luke! Stay with the group, especially when you don't know where you're going!" Natalia stood with her hands on her hips, Guy looked at the princess and sighed.
"You're just as bad Natalia." Natalia looked at the machine-crazed man, her eyebrow twitching. She walked forward, smirking. When she was close enough for Guy to take notice, he jumped back with a yelp, his whole body shaking. Satisfied, Natalia walked away from him, the smirk still on her face.
OoOoO
Through the wonderful powers of time skip, and lazy authors, we bring you to our group arriving at the rock just outside the Ranch.
The two groups, now one, approached the rock outside of the ranch, the Desian orb from the grave site in Raine's hand.
"Here's the rock Professor!" Lloyd exclaimed, trying to push the boulder out of the way.
"Man, its heavy, even with my exsphere." Lloyd backed away from the rock, rubbing his wrists.
"Great observation. Now that we know boulders are heavy, should we try a different approach?" Jade shrugged.
"If you're making fun of someone for pointing out the obvious, then don't point out the obvious."
"Oh dear is the youngster picking a fight with this old man?"
"Pfff. Old. You don't know old." Kratos mumbled to himself.
"What was that? I'm hard of hearing in my old age."
"I said that you only claim to be old to get out of things that you think are either below you or you do not want to do."
"I may not be as old as some mind you, but I have always been frail." The Colonel did a few 'coughs' for good measure. Kratos merely looked annoyed. 'If he's frail then I'm a faerie.'
"If you're frail, then may I ask you what you're doing fighting."
"I have asthma attacks every now and then, but in between each attack, I am... fine to... fight." The groups just looked at the secret Angel and the Colonel, who was busy acting out an asthma attack. Kratos only stared, his auburn eyes boring holes in the Colonels.
The rest of our crew, had backed off and began to look at the boulder, wondering how they were going to use the orb to move the rock.
"Maybe you should try using your mana sis." Genis suggested. Raine nodded her head, and began focusing her mana, using the orb as a amplifier. Eyes widened, and jaws dropped as the boulder started rising off of the ground, and away from the secret entrance. Meiu looked over at the two arguing 'adults', frowning.
"We figured out a way to get in! Meiu!"
"Pompous buffoon." Jade's voice soared into the ears of the group
"Ignorant Cur."
"Ignoramus."
"Insolent fool."
"Would you two knock it off already?! We're going to get caught if you keep it up." Raine hissed at them, her eyes showing just how annoyed she was. The others just stared and blinked at the two arguing men.
"200 glad on Kratos."
"I'll bet Jade...just to be fair...you know." Lloyd and Luke looked at each other, putting their money in between them. Raine only sighed and walked to the boulder.
"Jerk."
"Bastard."
"Welp."
"SHUT IT!" and yet, even after Natalia's cries and Anise's tugging at the Colonel's jacket, the two men never shut up.
"You know...they're language is starting to get foul...well...more like what I use." Luke nodded to Lloyd's statement.
"Yeah." Tear sighed and looked at Raine.
"Maybe we should just leave them." Raine nodded her head.
"Yes, even if they are our comrades, Kratos can handle his own, and Jade...well I'm sure he'll be fine." Tear nodded her head.
"Even if the Colonel acts childish sometimes, he knows how to fight." Genis walked over to Luke and Lloyd.
"200 Gald that Raine gets annoyed enough to leave them..." Luke and Lloyd motioned to the pile, and Genis put his amount in, knowing he would win, hands down and no magic of course.
"I hope you never reproduce. The child would take after you, and we wouldn't want that." Kratos's eyes narrowed almost to slits, and Jade smirked, knowing he hit a nerve.
"Hit a soft spot did I?" Kratos's teeth could be heard grinding against each other. He turned on his heel and walked through the opening after Raine.
"Aww!"
"Ha!"
"We'll have to split it. Raine left, and Jade won." Luke nodded his head, grinning, while Lloyd looked upset at having lost. Sheena looked at the three boys and shook her head.
"Men." she walked through the tunnel, Tear, and Natalia walking after her. Guy had already gone ahead, and was in front of Raine, wondering what kind of machines he could see in this place.
"How come you guys did bets without me!" Anise cried, looking upset, "I could have won it all." The three boys exchanged a glance and bolted into the tunnel. Jade stood where he had been and looked at Anise.
"That man...Kratos...he's...interesting. I wonder why my insult about children upset him so much." The Colonels eyes looked over at the tunnel, where Anise had just ran into, mumbling about 'bets'.
"Maybe...its just my...imagination." Jade's eyes narrowed, and he fixed his glasses, walking into the tunnel as well, hoping that whatever threat was at this place wouldn't be too much to take care of.
OoOoO
Raine and Guy were the first ones of the group to reach the inside of the Ranch. Guy's eyes widened and bolted over to the most helpful thing one could ever find inside a Ranch. A refresher. Raine didn't bother going over as she had already figured out how it worked...well almost. She just didn't want to end up scaring the young enthusiast, so she engrossed herself with the machines up the stairs and on the wall till the rest of the group got to the room. Tear and Natalia were next, and they too walked up the stairs, only to watch Raine press some buttons, trying to do what, they had no idea. Soon the rest of the group arrived, Kratos standing far off to the side, glowering at the Colonel.
Guy gave a cry of excitement and motioned for everyone to come close to the machine.
"It restores your energy, and heals you!" the Sylvarant group had large clumps of sweat in their hair as they watched the Auldrant group fuss over the machine. Raine cleared her throat to grab everyone's attention.
"It's called a refresher, and it refreshes you, as the name says, and the vending machine beside it, allows you to buy healing items from it." The Auldrant group looked fairly impressed with the refresher, not so much the vending machine.
Luke walked over to the vending machine, seeing a lot of the healing items he was familiar with.
"We could use some more apple gels...since there isn't any lemon gels."
"Are they the same things as you use back home?" Sheena asked, coming up beside him. Luke nodded his head.
"For the most part." Sheena nodded and put some glad in, and punched in the code for life bottles. Luke looked at her oddly.
"With Lloyd, we really need these. I swear he passes out at least ONCE every major battle we're in, and sometimes even when we're not in major battles. I haven't even been with the group that long." Sheena shook her head, and Luke coughed, remembering when he had been like that.
"I'm getting better at it." Lloyd mumbled under his breath, thinking it better not to start a fight when in the Ranch, if any of his past experiences where anything to go by.
Luke looked at the vending machine, deciding to get some more apple gels. He put some glad in, punched the code in, and just as the apple gels had come out...
"Ahhh!" Luke fell forward, grabbing the machine, and Sheena being close enough, grabbed onto him, so that he didn't hit the floor.
(You idiotic dreck! There's no Hima anywhere on the maps! And I've checked every map I could get my hands on!) Asch's voice boomed in Luke's ears.
"What is the big deal anyway? Why are you trying to find where I am that badly?" Luke asked pain relevant in his voice. Sheena gave him a worried look, turning her gaze towards Raine.
'His twin?' she mouthed. Raine only shrugged, having very little knowledge on what was going on.
(Ugh! You really are an idiot if you haven't figured it out by now!)
"Huh?" Sheena shifted nervously. No one besides Luke could hear Asch, and it was unsettling. Sheena only hopped that the red head wouldn't scream again.
(Uuuggghhh! The jewel you reject! You have the jewel!)
"I... I do?"
(Yes it mixed with you! Because your frequency is the same as it)
"But I don't have it now..."
(Yes you do! Its probably in a pocket or still mixed up with you!)
Luke reached into a few of his pockets before finally locating the jewel. A faint blush was detected on Sheena's face as Luke looked in said pockets, moving around so that he didn't make this an...uncomfortable situation for either of them. His hand stopped at an inside back pocket, the smooth surface of the jewel gliding over his fingers.
"Oh." Luke pulled his hand from his pocket, not disturbing the jewel, and put his hand on the machine again.
(Idiot how could you not notice it sooner?! You dumbass)
"Enough of the insults get to the point." Luke grumbled.
(I just told you...)
"Oh. Well...we found out we got transported to a different world..."
(Only you could manage to screw up this badly you...)
Luke blinked a few times waiting for the insult, but it never came.
(...genius)
"What?" Luke blinked in surprise, "Are you sick?"
(No you idiot. If you're in another world then Van can't get his hands on the jewel! Its in a place that he can't get to! As long as you stay there until we need the jewel that is.)
"Not like we have a choice"
(I'll see if I can find out exactly what happened. Maybe we can recreate the screw up you caused so when its time you can get your sorry self back here,)
"Hey!" Luke said as the headache vanished.
"Is your headache gone?" Luke nodded his head, trying to stand up, but failed horribly, Sheena having to support him. Luke ended up pulling Sheena down closer to the ground, having no control over his body, and for once it was a good thing. A Desian ran into the room, and tripped over the two, and was knocked out after he soared into the wall, like a good Desian should.
"That was certainly lucky, he plowed headfirst into a wall. Good job Luke, you caused an unfortunate accident." Luke grumbled under his breath about Jade needing a new hobby. Sheena helped him stand up, but Luke was still unsteady. The thing known as Kratos moved an inch from where he had been since the group had entered, still leaning on the wall. (A/N Holding up the wall is a full time job people!)
"We really need to get going, as we'll have to split up. Lloyd, why don't you decided who should go with who." The look in Kratos' eyes said that he wanted the chance to kill Kvar.
Lloyd nodded his head.
"I'll take Kratos and the Professor with me."
"Oh, and you're planning to go and fight with two people by your side then?" Lloyd turned to the Colonel.
"We've managed to do this before, and Kratos and I, we both have something to say to Kvar."
"I'm implying that you take at least three of our group with you as well." Lloyd shook his head at Jade.
"Its personal. And I can't ask you guys to help us with something like..."
"Yeah. And we'll need all the help with pressing the switches and opening the warp point to the control room." Genis said somewhat sarcastically.
"Yes, it would be best to have extra hands come with us. Lloyd, we should have some of their group come with us." Lloyd nodded his head, and Kratos grumbled something under his breath. Colette heard what Kratos had said.
"I think Jade should come with us! He's probably the most brainy out of your group. He looks strong too!" Colette grinned, and Jade smiled.
"I would be honor to escort you. Not like I have much choice in the matter." Kratos' eyebrow twitched. 'Someone let me kill him' Lloyd nodded his head.
"And Anise and Natalia should go with that group as well. Luke, Tear and Guy should come with us." both groups nodded they're heads, agreeing with Lloyd.
"Lets head out." Lloyd pointed towards the door.
"The sooner the better." Kratos nodded, wanting to kill the monster, who had cause him so much pain.
Bucky: ITS MY FAULT THAT WE UPDATED SO LATE...well compared to what we wanted to do.
KC: eh...either way we got it up. SO REJOICE!
Bucky: Genis. Desclaimer.
Genis: Poet Bucky and Kimcat do not own Tales of the Abyss or Tales of Symphonia.
Bucky: But I own plushie plans!
KC: and I own a copy of the games.